South Korea Blames North Korea for March Cyberattack

Officials from the Republic of Korea are saying North Korea’s military intelligence agency was responsible for the mid-March malware attacks that knocked several prominent South Korean banks and broadcasters offline, according to a Dow Jones Newswire report.

The South Korean Science Ministry reportedly found similarities between this attack and previous ones known to emanate from the north. Furthermore, the report claims that investigators managed to trace the attack, which was routed through machines in a number of nations in an attempt to cloak its origin, back to machines located in the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.

Some too blamed China, because an initial investigation, first reported by CNN, pinned the attack to machines with Chinese IP addresses. It is possible, probable in fact given the latest reports, that these machines were proxies through which the North routed its attack.

The South’s accusation comes amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula. At this point, it’s impossible to tell who’s provoking whom, but it seems that every day North Korea threatens South Korea and its allies with nuclear strikes while South Korea and the U.S. continue increasing the frequency and intensity of military exercises on the peninsula.

About Brian Donohue

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

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